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In the days after the Mayor Rob Ford video stories broke, young men in the Dixon Rd. neighbourhood that has become the epicentre of the scandal started getting threatening phone calls.

The voice on the other end of the line, inexplicably, identified itself as being from the “military” or the “navy,” according to neighbourhood sources.

On Friday, Ford’s “close friend” Alexander “Sandro” Lisi appeared in court to face a charge of extortion. Lisi allegedly used “threats or violence or menaces” to demand that two alleged gang members turn over a video of the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and uttering homophobic and racist remarks.

Police allege the threats happened between May 16 and 18, according to a court document — these are the days immediately after the Star and U.S.-based website Gawker broke stories about the video’s existence.

A search warrant document related to Lisi’s Oct. 1 drug-related arrest and made public Thursday shows Lisi, during the same time period, making several calls to alleged Dixon City Blood members Liban Siyad and Mohamed Siad. Siad is the man who was in possession of and trying to sell the Ford video with the help of a broker, the Star has reported. Both men were arrested during June’s Project Traveller raids.

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The search warrant document (nearly half of which is censored) doesn’t provide any details of what was said during the calls. The Star does not know if the threatening “military” calls came from Lisi. Young people in the neighbourhood were apparently scared by them. Many believed Ford to be powerful. There was pressure put on Siad to make it all go away, sources say.

Alexander Lisi leaves Old City Hall after being released on bail following a court appearance on Oct. 2, 2013. (Rick Madonik / Toronto Star file photo)

Alexander Lisi, left, leaves Old City Hall court Friday after being released on bail on extortion charges relating to the video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Beside him is lawyer Seth Weinstein. (Richard Lautens / Toronto Star)

On Thursday, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, in a bombshell announcement, said that investigators, using data recovery software, had recovered deleted video files from a hard drive that was seized from one of the accused arrested during the Project Traveller raids. While police raided and searched Siad’s apartment on June 13, it is unclear who the hard drive belonged to.

Sitting in the prisoner’s box at Old City Hall Friday, Lisi leaned up against the glass, his back to reporters who were crammed into the small courtroom.

His head was mostly tucked inside the furry hood of a black Canada Goose down jacket. Much of what was said in court is covered by a publication ban.

Lisi was granted a $5,000 bail. His conditions include staying away from Elaine and Fabio Basso, who live at 15 Windsor Rd., where the infamous photo of Ford flanking alleged Dixon City Blood members Anthony Smith (who was shot to death in March) and Muhammad Khattak and Monir Kassim, both arrested as part of Project Traveller, was shot. The house is also referred to as a “crack house” in the search warrant document. One confidential source quoted in the document said that the house “belongs to a couple of crack heads but Dixon guys go there to ‘chop’ crack or just hang out and get drunk.”

On Thursday, Blair told reporters that police believe the video was shot at a house on Windsor Rd.

According to the search warrant document, in the three days after the May 16 stories, Lisi made a flurry of phone calls. He exchanged calls with Fabio Basso seven times. Lisi called Liban Siyad three times and Mohamed Siad five times, though the duration of calls with Siad were very brief (about five seconds). Siyad’s lasted longer, (up to 90 seconds). There were also multiple calls exchanged between Ford and Lisi during this time period.

On May 20, Lisi showed up at the Basso residence asking where “the guys who made the video” were, according to a source. Basso, a quiet man, responded by saying they’d gone to Windsor Ont. The Star does not know what Lisi did with that information.

The next day, Lisi was seen driving around the area and pulled his car up to 15 Windsor Rd. and started asking questions, a source says. Later that night, Fabio, his girlfriend, and Fabio’s mother were assaulted by an unknown attacker brandishing an expandable baton who broke into their home. No charges have been laid in the attack.

On Friday, Lisi left the courthouse with his father and his two lawyers Domenic Basile and Seth Weinstein, who told reporters that, as the allegations against their client are before the court, they couldn’t comment on the specifics of the case. They said the last several weeks had been “very difficult” for Lisi.

“He’s not someone who’s in public office. He’s facing allegations and he has been hounded by the media,” Basile said.

Lisi’s courthouse departure Friday was smoother than on Oct. 2, after his bail hearing on drug-related charges. On that day, Lisi led reporters on a chase through the courthouse and surrounding streets.

On Friday, Lisi jumped into a waiting SUV and sped away. The vehicle is registered to Frank Malfara, who runs a gas and service station on Royal York Rd.

Lisi is no stranger to the gas station.

The search warrant document reveals police watched Lisi on several occasions at the gas station in July and August, talking on his phone and meeting with various individuals. On one occasion he was seen making an exchange of a “small unknown item” from the trunk of a car.

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